The death of Nelson is a well known story, but most people know much less of the battle in which he died: the single afternoon, off the coast of southern Spain, which put and end for ever to Napoleon’s hope of invading England, and established a supremacy at sea which lasted until the age of air power.

England’s answer to the invasion threat had been to blockade Napoleon’s fleets in the ports of Europe, and in the autumn of 1895 the key had been the harbour of Cadiz. Within lay the French and Spanish, offshore the English. Villeneuve, the unhappy French commander, had lost the confidence of Napoleon and of many officers in his fleet, his crews were poorly trained, the French and Spanish were at odds. Morale among the English was not high either; many of them had not set foot ashore for years, and all of them were sick of the boredom of blockading.

Then Nelson came, and suddenly, pride and confidence swept through the British fleet. Men adored him a sailor wrote, and in fighting under him, every man thought himself sure of success. What followed, the tenseness of the slow approach to battle, the desperate bravery of the French, the tactics of fighting square rigged ships, the short shock of the engagement, the death of Nelson, the nightmare of the hurricane afterwards here all  are shown through the eyes of men who experienced them.